1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to cassette tape recording and reproducing apparatus working with compact tape cassettes, and more particularly to a portable cassette tape recording and reproducing apparatus which is miniaturized and light in weight so as to be handy to carry.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There has been proposed a cassette tape recording and reproducing apparatus which works with a cassette tape contained in a usual compact tape cassette for recording and reproducing an audio signal and has the external dimensions thereof reduced to be suitable for a portable apparatus. The compact tape cassette used with such a cassette tape recording and reproducing apparatus has the appearance as shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the compact tape cassette has a case 1 which is provided on a side wall thereof with plural openings through which a tape T is sighted. These openings include three relatively large openings 2a, 2b and 2c among which the opening 2a is located between the openings 2b and 2c.
For recording or reproduction of a signal, the compact tape cassette shown in FIG. 1 is loaded on the cassette tape recording and reproducing apparatus in such a manner that the tape T is driven to run, for example, in the direction indicated with an arrow a in FIG. 1. In the signal recording operation, a recording and reproducing head device, a pinch roller operative to drive the tape T and an erasing head device, each provided in the cassette tape recording and reproducing apparatus, are inserted into the opening 2a at the center, the opening 2b at the right side and the opening 2c at the left side, respectively. On the other hand, in the signal reproducing operation, although the recording and reproducing head device and the pinch roller are inserted into the opening 2a at the center and the opening 2b at the right side, respectively, the erasing head device is not inserted into the opening 2c at the left side, so that the opening 2c is not utilized. This means that, in the case where the compact tape cassette as shown in FIG. 1 is loaded on a cassette tape player which is constituted to be a reproducing apparatus, the opening 2c formed in the case of the compact tape cassette is never utilized.
Accordingly, in connection with the cassette tape player constituted to be a reproducing apparatus, it has been proposed to place a certain structural component, such as a battery pack 3 as shown with a dot-dash line in FIG. 1, at a position where the structural component faces the opening 2c of the compact tape cassette loaded on the player, in order to make good use of a space in the player and thereby to miniaturize more the external dimensions of the player.
For a miniaturized cassette tape player which is provided with a structural component such as a battery pack placed to face a specific one of large openings formed in the case of the compact tape cassette loaded thereon, it is also desired to have an erasing head device in addition to a recording and reproducing head device so as to be capable of assuming a recording operational mode for recording a signal on a tape contained in the compact tape cassette. However, in the case of such a miniaturized cassette tape player, there is a difficulty that the erasing head device can not be provided so as to be inserted into the specific large opening formed in the case of the compact tape cassette loaded on the player because the structural component such as the battery pack is placed to face that specific large opening. Because of this, a previously proposed miniaturized cassette tape player which has a structural component, such as the battery pack, placed so as face to a specific one of large openings formed on the case of the compact tape cassette loaded thereon, is not given the erasing head and therefore can not assume the recording operational mode.